Writes in English. Lives in Mongolia.

Should You Read Blogs? – Pros

Question: For a $9.99, would you prefer to buy a book or subscribe to a newspaper for 3-months?

There is no right choice in this and it depends a lot on what kind of infromation you are looking to get. But the value is same–you want information and you want to look smart.

Hey, hold on, then. What about blogs? Would you spend any time on reading these things? I think you do, chief. And here’s why:

1. Blogs show individual perspectives.
If you browse around, almost every blog has an About Me section. The authors introduce and express themselves to connect with readers. Stephen King wrote writing is “telepathy, of course”. So the advantage of blogs is that the authors not only do telepathy with you and show their perspectives, they do it with extensive visual aids and other media.

2. Blog Authors Are Available to Engage
Remember when you read that cool book and you wrote to the author, but he didn’t reply back in the last five years? Well, it happens. As Neal Stephenson puts it, authors need isolation to produce their work*. (Also apparently, they are not as smart as they seem in the book-telepathy because the books are a result of countless reiterations and redactions. But I know Neal is just being modest :)) Well, with blog authors, you can totally ask questions and get answers. Why did you write this? OMG, my interest is [INSERT POINTLESS HOBBY], too. We should totes hang out. Etc etc.

3. Free Info / Entertainment
You knew this–ye ain’t gotta pay a dime. And while some blogs–present company included–are amateurs, there are tons of dedicated and high-quality blogs out there. Basically, the line between blogs and online magazines are blurring. So you have that free information coming out from passionate people. (They might apply ad-based revenue model, though.) And because of the who’d give a damn about your blog environment, many bloggers have taken a comedic attitude. Their blogs are humorous, because that’s how you distinguish yourself from countless other ‘About Me’s. It’s a tough world out there–but hey, the result is free entertainment for readers!

4. It’s Basically a Twitter With No Limit
Frustrated at squeezing your idea into 140 characters onTwitter? WordPress has become (or it always was) just like Twitter, just with no limit. You can follow, favorite and even retweet reblog someone. So the world is yours, go crazy. Found interesting people? Follow them. Like someone’s post? “Like” it. Jealous of someone’s post? Reblog it. Always on the go? Get a mobile app, like me.

5. You Can Join / Create a Community
The best part of blogging is that, while reading and following other blogs, you can have your own blog, too. The real reason our ancestors invented writing is to contact others. (Don’t eat the cowberries, and Ugg’s an asshole. Hahaha.) Now the technology has sophisticated it to extreme, we can not only leave long notes and hope someone reads it, but also find other people’s notes and ask them about it. This leads to dialogues that help form a community. Finally, you can find people with common interest, be it scuba diving, emo poetry or self-deprecating humor.

* – It’s a lot easier to stalk follow authors now, though. Stephen King now has a Twitter. But I for one follow my favorites on Goodreads.

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2 thoughts on “Should You Read Blogs? – Pros”

You mentioned authors need to remain in isolation so they can focus on their books. This thought has occurred to me. I will not ever get a book written if I keep reading all these blogs. 🙂 I might not get another blog written either.It is true. I love reading in general and browsing around wordpress and on the internet with online news and such I can spend a lot to time reading and not getting anything done 😦 But I do like meeting some of the writers online. It’s a predicament!

Thanks for the comment, Deborah. You bring in an interesting point and I totally agree with you. An uninterrupted time is important for writing, and browsing blogs too much sometimes feel like procrastination. But connecting with like-minded authors will motivate you in the long run, I think. 🙂